


Conscience and Pleasure

by taibhrigh



Series: Pleasures [10]
Category: Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-11
Updated: 2013-12-11
Packaged: 2018-01-04 08:52:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1079009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riddick is building his forces while Vaako makes a very significant change to the purification of new Necromonger recruits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conscience and Pleasure

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [siluria](http://archiveofourown.org/users/siluria) for the beta.
> 
> This was written for smallfandomfest #14 on LJ.

~~~***~~~

Vaako glanced over at Mace. The planet hacker's purification hadn't gone like the hundreds of thousands before him. He had screamed when the sharp metal probes had pierced the skin of his neck, just like every new recruit. What new recruits didn't do was start giggling like a loon seconds after. Mace spent less than three minutes of the five day process connected to the system before it released him, dropping him into a heap on the floor still giggling.

"That's so not going to work. Also, there's about a dozen flaws in the code and a hiccup in the systems controlling racks eighty-one through one hundred and eight in the next bay over and the Purifier dude knows it too."

Mace had sounded drunk and his eyes weren't focusing when he had looked up at him and Riddick. Riddick had leaned down and took Mace's head in his hands and a white light started burning around them. 

"No, not that again," the planet hacker had started to say only to beginning screaming much like he had during Riddick's tests. This time Vaako also touched Mace.

The planet hacker was with them. He was theirs. The bio- and nanotech within his body would reject the purification process, but he was still theirs. He wanted to be theirs. The only thing Riddick and Vaako had found was a shadow in Mace's mind and memories that weren't his. But they seemed as if they belonged right where they were. Mace was searching for something, but not trying to hide it even as the Threshold provided the means to purify him--to strengthen his body; to let the Threshold touch him. 

_If he finds the shadow?_ Vaako asked in the light of the Threshold.

 _We'll see when he finds it, if we keep it or not. But he's ours,_ Riddick answered.

 _Ours since he stepped on board. To him this was like coming home,_ Vaako added.

When the light receded Mace slumped to lay on the ground with his eyes closed. "Can we not do that again?" he asked, rubbing at his forehead even as Enki licked his face. "Ah, my computer buzz is gone too. I was liking that. Stop that, Enki," Mace added, pushing the hellhound back a little.

Riddick chuckled. "Fix the system, Mace. And don't make me send Shana after you, you don't have to fix this all at once."

Vaako knew that Mace was constantly improving and fixing systems across the fleet. Most of them had barely been kept maintained in the last hundred years. If given a chance, his little planet hacker would work until he dropped and then he do no one any good. "Mace," he warned.

Mace bit his lip and nodded before saying, "Yes, my Lord."

_Think he'll leave._

_Enki will make sure he leaves._

_He needs a keeper._

_So do you, sometimes._

~~~***~~~

The conquering and near destruction of Fillend had invigorated Riddick. He'd enjoyed the fight. He'd gone down with the troops from the Gauntlet, wanting to observe first hand how the battle would go.

Toran had shadowed him and Riddick only allowed it because Vaako had insisted and promised a few interesting uses for the throne in the Necropolis. Vaako had stayed aboard the Basilica and issued orders to both the ground troops he was observing and Mace who raided Fillend's Core Systems while destroying the automatic response systems the planet had.

Riddick had taken on more than a dozen opponents without even using the powers the Threshold had given him. He loved the changes the Threshold made, how they had augmented what he already was, but sometimes it was best to do things the old way. Old ways could be fun. The adrenaline was delicious. His blade slashed out take one man across the throat before being impaled into a second's heart. 

He avoided the school where dozens of children were huddled. A teacher trying to keep them quiet. If they survived the day then they could live. Be stronger for it and Riddick would take them the next time they came to Fillend. Some would say he had a conscience and call him weak for that action. Riddick had ripped the throat from the last one who had said that to his face.

Children couldn't be purified. While they could be soldiers in a war they couldn't be Necromonger soldiers and he wasn't running a daycare. He liked to think of himself as picky and providing for a future harvest.

Catching several of his soldiers raping a struggling teenage girl instead of doing their job took away his adrenaline high and just pissed him off. The soldiers had become like stone, heat rising from their bodies as they slowly burned from the inside. The girl stood there, in fear watching as the soldiers' clothes caught fire but they never screamed out or struggled. Riddick handed the girl a blade, showed her where to aim and watched as she plunged it into each man's chest. 

"Good girl," he said, "now run along." The girl ran.

"Field Officer Cowen," Toran said, without missing a beat. "The rest of his unit should be two streets over. Herding the townfolk to the pick up zone."

Riddick smirked. Maybe having Toran along would be useful. He felt Vaako's chuckle at his thoughts and told his lover he still wasn't amused even as he felt the soft chuckle become a full laugh.

Two streets over had Riddick and Toran both dunking behind a burned out hovercar to avoid being shot. 

"Our pardons, my Lord," a shadow detached itself from the darkness and falling debris to stand in front of him. "We were told you were on the other side of the city and our troops were clear of this area."

"Vaughn," Toran acknowledged before turning to look up and to his left. "Which means Cort is around here somewhere." 

Vaughn gave a slight shrug.

Riddick seized Toran's memories on the two individuals he had just named. They were not with Cowen. He turned his gaze on Vaughn and the other man didn't flinch. Interesting. His skills were being wasted as pulling rabbits out of hiding and sending them to exportation zone was a job for a Lensor crew. 

There was a bare whisper of sound and Riddick wasn't sure, but there was a chance that without the gifts from the Threshold he wouldn't have heard Cort's approach until the man was within arm's reach. Another waste of talent. Riddick hated waste.

Cort bowed his head and said, "My Lord."

"Cowen?" Riddick asked.

"Ah," Vaughn answered, gracefully lifting his hand and with a little twist pointed his finger at a building. "An easy question. Third building down, no doubt stealing metals and stones."

"And the rest of his troops?"

"Doing as they wish and not as they are told by command."

Riddick had thought as much. It looked like the Gauntlet was about to get another cleaning. "You're on rat duty now. I want them dead."

"Yes, my Lord," Vaughn and Cort said in unison, giving a slight bow before moving to the right and out of sight down a narrow alleyway.

Riddick watched them go. "I want them in front of me tomorrow morning," he said. 

"Yes, my Lord," Toran replied, falling into step.

~~~***~~~

Riddick's hips shifted slightly as he thrust deeper into Vaako. They were going to defile every bench, statue, and corner in the Necropolis. Vaako laughed into his neck and the soft puffs air sent spikes of pleasure through him that he used to push his mate closer to the edge. He thought about using his hand to stroke Vaako's cock but his hands were too busy holding his lover in place.

"Do that again," Vaako moaned.

"I didn't do..."

_Then think it again, dammit. I felt that._

Riddick thought about wrapping his hand around Vaako's cock and slowly squeezing it from tip to middle before stroking down and back up. Vaako groaned. 

_Again._

_Bossy._

Vaako growled out his displeasure and Riddick smirked before thrusting in and up into his lover, as his thoughts gave way to pulling more moans from Vaako's lips until they were both rushing to climax.

He licked at Vaako's neck, his teeth grazing over a bit mark he had made earlier. 

"We'll have to do that again," he said.

Vaako grabbed his head and brought their lips together. Riddick felt hands squeeze his ass even though Vaako's were holding his head. There was a soft chuckle in his head before he heard Vaako in his mind.

_Absolutely, but I'll do the leading next time._

Riddick really had no problems with that.

~~~***~~~

Vaako smirked at him. "I told you."

In the month since Vaako had gotten his hands on their little planet hacker, he had insisted they increase their pack. Vaako had actually called it their inner circle. At first Riddick had been against it, but the more information Mace tapped into the more Shana and Toran were off the ship and the more their two hunters couldn't be in two places at once.

Toran had sent the order for Vaughn and Cort to appear in the Necropolis. Riddick played a little game and offered Vaughn a position on the Basilica and Cort a new position on the Gauntlet.

Vaughn had countered with another offer. Riddick liked to be surprised and Vaughn had done that. He and Cort were very different from one another and it had entertained Riddick to see Vaughn bargained for Cort's inclusion and the other man try and stop him. The two men were very unlikely friends especially in an environment that did not often encourage loyalty of that kind. 

_Well?_ he asked Vaako who was walking behind the two men.

"Both," Vaako answered aloud, stepping in to put his hands on the two men.

Riddick gave neither man a chance to move or expect anything until both men were on their knees screaming as the white light of the Threshold wrapped around them.

They had survived the tests--Vaughn a little more singed than Cort, and both were thriving in their new positions. Both men were trained assassins but Cort was more the silent, bodyguard type while Vaughn was a male version of Shana. 

The big difference between Vaughn and Shana, he had been born a noble before becoming a Necromonger and trained to be an assassin during purification; Shana had been an assassin before purification and the process had only enhanced her abilities. Vaughn was a tall, lithe man with coloring very similar to Vaako. He knew from his tests that Vaughn was from the same planet and land mass as his lover. Vaughn could blend in anywhere he was sent. Partnering him with Shana and or Toran on a couple of the missions to retrieve Elementals had brought great returns.

As for Cort, he wasn't much taller than Toran and with his olive complexion that had not grayed during purification he should have stood out amongst the Necromonger fleet but most of the time no one noticed he was there. Riddick admired that ability as well as the man's skill with long-range weapons. 

Even better, Mace had become enamored with the silent man and Cort hadn't batted an eye at Mace's abilities. The Necromonger courting practice that Cort had attempted to start finished less than a week into the process when Mace had simply told the other man, "I'd rather we just jump to the part where you get to fuck me in the Memory Core Room."

Now neither he or Vaako had to find Mace a keeper, he'd apparently done it for himself. All Cort ever had to do was run his fingers somewhere over Mace's body and the planet hacker followed his new mate out of the Memory Core Chamber and to bed without much protest.

~~~***~~~

Fillend had only partially refreshed the ranks of the Gauntlet and the Wrecker. The Devil was also only at half capacity after its previous captain had tried to mutiny. The new Purification Systems ate through Fillend's population, destroying those who weren't strong enough to serve; leaving only a few remains and a lot of ash under the Purification probes. The Purifiers themselves had been the first to undergo the new process and the ones who had been failing in their duties had burned. The few who survived truly served the Lord Marshal now.

Vaako looked over the results that Mace had pulled from the system. At this rate it would take at least a dozen more planets to get all the ships to even two-thirds capacity. The old system took in everyone. Maybe one in two thousand would die while being purified. With the new system it was more like one in ten survived all the way to the end.

"Do you want me to lower the new protocols?" Mace asked, hand resting on the top of the memory core for the Wrecker's Purification System.

"No." He and Riddick didn't want the weak. The new systems had been touched by the Threshold thanks to Mace's own Purification. The new recruits that survived were mostly soldiers, followed by the worker classes. The nobles ranks were being thinned. But all who lived were loyal to the Lord Marshal and his Consort. All had felt what their deaths would feel like if they betrayed them.

They would just have to take more planets before going after the Valicane and the Elementals home world. They still had Varno Sector and Sinnan--the home of the Water Elmental Elder, Donin.

~~~***~~~

They gave no warning, no chance to bargain. There was no masterful show with a Purifier to bring the population to their knees. Any ship that tried to leave was disabled, boarded, and survivors taken directly to the Purification Chambers. The largest cities on the three continents were hit with an Ascension Device before even one of the Necomonger ships landed. It was a warning.

Without a word or demand from the Necromonger fleet, Riddick triggered the first device. The continent shuddered as the device drew in energy, and on its release leveled entire cities as the heat from the device turned solid ground into a molten mass that rolled like waves on an ocean across the continent. There was nothing left in its wake.

It took less than a day to take Sinnan. Mace had prevented the distress calls from going out. Unlike Fillend, there would be no survivors on Sinnan--a planet the Elementals used as a base. 

The Elementals had given Furya to the Necromongers and now the last Alpha Furyan was taken something from Elementals. 

"Hello, Mattin," Riddick said to the male Fire Elemental. Riddick's grinned widen when he looked to one of the other cages which held a variety of Elementals. "Where is Donin and Corin? Where are your Elders?"

Mattin said nothing. Riddick smile turned vicious. "Fill the cage with the ice water."

"You can torture me all you want, Lord Marshal," Mattin said bravely. "I will never tell you what you want. The Necromongers will never win. There is a champion out there who will destroy you."

Vaako laughed. It was good to know that the Elementals had not realized their plan would never come to fruition. "We're not going to touch you," he said, as the three cells that Mattin could see into began filling with water. "But all the others, they're just not as valuable as you are. Enjoy the night."

Riddick nodded at Vaughn who pushed two more Fire Elementals into Mattin's cell. He wanted to see if their new pet could get the answers they wanted. Tine, had gone to her knees and called them Master just like Mero had. It seemed they were starting their own private collection of Elementals. 

Riddick watched as the Earth and Fire Elementals in the cells started shiver; even the one Water Elemental wasn't enjoying the treatment. If he survived the night, then he would be the next one to be interrogated. They would have the Elders and sooner or later they would have the Valicane.

~~~***~~~

Twenty-two floors above the detention levels Mace bolted awake. His eyes, the solid white of a Living Computer, the lights in his chambers flickering with rage. "The Mears System," he whispered, as lights flickered across the Basilica.

It only took moments for Riddick and Vaako to trace the disturbance to Mace. They entered the planet hacker's chambers to find Mace wrapped in Cort's embrace, preventing the younger man from leaving their bed. Keeping him from doing something rash.

"Did you see what woke him?" Vaako asked, knowing that there was a small amount of nanotech now present in the assassin's system. It was Mace's way of keeping track of his lover.

Cort shook his head. "Only a shadow. A warning of betrayal."

Vaako approached the bed and cupped Mace's jaw, tilting the planet hacker's head about so he could look the other man in the eyes.

_The shadow in his mind sent him a warning of betrayal. Warning to stay away._

_About us?_ , Riddick asked.

_No, another planet hacker. Elementals._

"Mace!" Vaako demanded the attention of his planet hacker.

Mace's eyes blinked once, twice, and then cleared. The lights across the Basilica returned to normal at the same time. "Yes, my Lord," Mace answered, sounding a little dazed.

"Find them."

"Yes, my Lord."

**~end~**


End file.
